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Axe (Ruth F.) collection of material about H.H. Bancroft and Company
LSC.1427  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Restrictions on Access
  • Restrictions on Use and Reproduction
  • Preferred Citation
  • Provenance/Source of Acquisition
  • Processing Information
  • UCLA Catalog Record ID
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Expanded Scope and Content Note
  • Organization and Arrangement

  • Contributing Institution: UCLA Library Special Collections
    Title: Ruth Frey Axe collection of material about H.H. Bancroft and Company
    Creator: Axe, Ruth Frey
    Identifier/Call Number: LSC.1427
    Physical Description: 4.0 Linear Feet (8 boxes)
    Date (inclusive): 1854-1977
    Abstract: Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft and Co. and A.L. Bancroft and Co. Ruth Frey Axe compiled the collection to complete the Bancroft publications checklist started by Henry Wagner and Eleanor Bancroft.
    Physical Location: Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
    Language of Material: Materials are in English.

    Restrictions on Access

    Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Ruth Frey Axe Collection of material about H.H. Bancroft and Company (Collection 1427). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Ruth Frey Axe, 1983.

    Processing Information

    Processed by UCLA Library Special Collections staff.
    Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
    We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections. 

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 9942303433606533 

    Biography

    Henry Raup Wagner was born Sept. 27,1862, in Philadelphia, PA; BA (1884) and LL.B. (1886), Yale Univ.; practiced law in Kansas City, MO, 1887-90; worked for Globe Smelting and Refining Co. (Denver) (1890-98), and Guggenheim Interests (later American Smelting and Refining Co.) (1898-1921); following his retirement in 1921, he devoted much of his time to writing on historical subjects; Wagner's interest in California printers and printing led him to collect Bancroft publications and prepare a bibliography on the subject; Eleanor Bancroft, then Asst to the Bancroft Library Director, assisted Wagner on this project; Wagner died Mar. 28, 1957; he bequeathed his collection of Bancroft imprints to the California Historical Society and left the nearly completed checklist project to Ruth Frey Axe. requesting that she see to its completion and publication.
    Ruth Frey Axe was born in Chicago, IL and grew up in Los Angeles, CA; after two years at the Univ. of Vienna, she attended UCLA, and subsequently earned a master's degree at the Univ. of So. CA; she first met Henry Wagner at UCLA, and became his secretary and research assistant for nearly thirty years.
    Hubert Howe Bancroft started publishing in 1857; his younger brother Albert Little Bancroft joined the business in 1859 making them close associates both in business and family life; in 1868 A.L. Bancroft and Co. came into existence and H.H. Bancroft and Co. was phased out; the brothers continued their association until 1886 when a fire and personal differences caused them to split; Albert went on to co-found the firm of Bancroft-Whitney.

    Scope and Content

    Collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft and Co. and A.L. Bancroft and Co. Ruth Frey Axe compiled the collection to complete the Bancroft publications checklist started by Henry Wagner and Eleanor Bancroft.

    Expanded Scope and Content Note

    The collection comprises correspondence, manuscripts, publications, and ephemera by and about H.H. Bancroft & Co. and A.L. Bancroft & Co. These were compiled by Ruth Frey Axe for the completion of a Bancroft Publications Check-list begun by her late employer Henry Raup Wagner and Eleanor Ashby Bancroft, then Assistant to the Director of the Baacroft Library, The list below is to be used in conjunction with Mrs. Axe's own inventory of the collection, a copy of which is attached. The original typescript is in Box 1, f.1.

    Organization and Arrangement

    Arranged in the following series:
    • Box 1: Axe's inventory of items in collection; items #2-52.
    • Box 2: Items #53-68; #79-84 (folder 1 of 4). [For #69-78 see box 8]
    • Box 3: Items #84 (folder 2)-85 (folder 5 of 6).
    • Box 4: Items #85 (folder 6)-89; #91-103. [#90 not included]
    • Box 5: Items #104-118.
    • Box 6: #119-126; items not on checklist:
      • Bancroft Library tickets of admission
      • Bancroft Co. stationery
      • Evolution of a Library (1901)
      • Miscellaneous articles and ephemera re Hubert Howe Bancroft
    • Box 7: Item #127.
    • Box 8: Items #69-78.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Publishers and publishing -- California, Northern.
    Bibliographies -- Archives.
    A.L. Bancroft & Company
    Axe, Ruth Frey--Archives.
    Bancroft, Eleanor
    H.H. Bancroft and Company
    Wagner, Henry Raup, 1862-1957.